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The B.C. Lions are hoping that free-agent receiver Bryan Burnham returns to Vancouver if he doesn't catch on with an NFL team.DARRYL DYCK / THE CANADIAN PRESS

To the Igbo people of southeast Nigeria, his first name means “the road is good.”

Bequeathed that hopeful handle by his Nigerian-born father, former Texas A&M Aggies and Houston Texans wide receiver Uzoma Nwachukwu came to the B.C. Lions last spring expecting to challenge for a starting spot with the Canadian Football League team.

That’s what the Lions were expecting, too. But the challenge from the speedy wideout, who played with Johnny Manziel and was on the Biletnikoff Award watch list, didn’t materialize. He was let go by the Lions in the first round of cuts in June.

“Honestly, we were very disappointed,” says Lions head coach and general manager Wally Buono. “He came to us highly recommended. We had high expectations for him.”

Nwachukwu’s name came into focus for the Lions again this week when he had a tryout with the Dallas Cowboys, as part of the CFL’s post-season window of opportunity established in cooperation with the NFL.

Included in the same Dallas free-agent tryout were Quincy McDuffie, the explosive returner-receiver of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, and the Lions’ Bryan Burnham, the CFL’s fourth-leading receiver in 2016.

On Wednesday, Nwachukwu and McDuffie officially signed two-year “futures” contracts tendered by the Cowboys for $1.170 million and $1.020 million, respectively, with McDuffie being awarded a small signing bonus of $5,000. The former Blue Bomber, who led the CFL in kickoff return average last season, could be a spark the Cowboys’ middling special teams needs.

For Burnham, who has been doing the rounds of NFL workouts for weeks, it was another apparent rejection — yet a situation which could prove beneficial to the Lions, who hope to sign him to a new contract.

Jan. 31 marked the temporary closing of the window given CFL free agents to work out with NFL teams. Only after CFL free agency begins on Feb. 14 — when all unsigned players are once again fair game for both leagues — can players from the north strut their stuff before NFL personnel.

It leaves Buono with a couple of weeks’ grace with which to negotiate a new deal with Burnham and his agent, Dan Vertlieb. Neither responded when Postmedia News left callback messages on Friday.

“I’m not too sure what’s out there for Bryan now,” Buono said. “He’s had 10 to 12 workouts. I’m not sure one more is going to make a difference. We’ve expressed interest that we’d like to sit down and negotiate a contract. Now, he has to make up his mind.

“We’ve stayed away from contacting him through the whole NFL process. It looks like we’re pressing him if we do.”

Last season was a breakout year for Burnham, who vaulted from No. 43 in receiving production leaguewide to No. 4 in 2016.

Targeted 105 times (14 others in the CFL had more opportunities), he had 79 catches for 1,392 yards and ranked No. 1 in yards per catch (17.6). He also ranked first in tough catches (12) in an advanced stats package put together by TSN’s Derek Taylor.

Burnham’s emergence in training camp last year — his diligent training in the off-season immediately became apparent — is one of the reasons Nwachukwu was sent packing early. The ex-Aggie later ended up in the camp of the Seattle Seahawks and was with them into August before he was released.

The way Buono has it figured, players with trackman speed such as Nwachukwu and McDuffie show to better advantage under combine conditions. Timed tests in the 40 and measurements of agility and quickness allow some players to be chartbusters in workouts, though they could turn out to be disappointments on an NFL field.

Toughness, and the ability to make difficult catches, even in double coverage, speak more to Burnham’s game.

“When you run a 4.6 (40-yard dash), the NFL doesn’t worry about 4.6 guys,” Buono says. “The most impressive thing about Bryan are his hands. He doesn’t impress you with great quickness and speed. But you can’t measure his intangibles — his toughness, his yards after the catch.

“It’s the same reason I almost cut Jeff Garcia (in Calgary) and Mike Reilly (with the Lions). If you never really get to see them perform in a real game situation, you lose out.”

While that sounds like an agent making a free-agent sales pitch to eight other CFL teams, Buono knows Burnham is aware the Lions’ GM believed in him when others didn’t and allowed him time to build a rapport with up-and-coming quarterback Jonathon Jennings.

“He (Burnham) was placed in an environment where he was allowed to succeed,” Buono says. “He was highlighted. Sometimes, when you step out of a positive environment, and turn the page for a few more dollars, you don’t always succeed.”

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